Avatar: The Last Airbender: Underground Misfortune

-1"GRRRR!" Aang fell to the ground and lay flat on his back. This firebending stuff was harder then it looked. Just listening to Uncle Iroh explained how fire was a "special element in which you need to pull pure oxygen from the air, blah, blah, blah," was worse then falling down a hill full of prickly rose bushes. Aang found more interest in the passing cloud that reminded him of a banana with an Italian mustache.

"Up! Up! A fire bender never gives in!"

"Well I'm no fire bending," Aang snapped back.

"You will be, whether you want to or not. You are the AVATAR!" Uncle Iroh lifted his hands above his head to emphases his point.

"Um…ok, I kinda already figured that out. Maybe a break would be nice," Aang suggested.

"Yes, I do think I hear a tea pot calling my name."

"Nope, just me Uncle!" Prince Zuko called out again.

Aang joined Katara by the peaceful spring and bent down to look at his reflection. He shook his head as Katara glanced at him with concerned eyes. "Sometimes," he started, "I wish I weren't the avatar. Out of all the people in the world why did I have been cursed with such a great responsibility?"

"Just give it time." Katara was soothing and calm as always. "This was not a curse, but a gift. It is a huge responsibility, but you don't have to go at it alone." She touched his shoulder lightly, hoping to show her sympathy. Katara's tranquil nature seemed to rub off on Aang. She always understood him and that's what Aang liked about her. Too bad the fortune teller told him he had NO future love life whatsoever. That was another thing that added to Aang's "pile of things that made him unhappy." Until now he thought this pile was simply an imaginary metaphor in his head; however this soon was proven to be wrong.

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"Avatar!" Uncle Iroh came running at an impressive pass for an old man. Behind him came Prince Zuko and two fire bending guards. Aang's mind quickly raced with thoughts of escape - oh no! They've tricked us. We must find a way out! Aang's lack of trust surprised even himself after all, these very man had saved his life in a fierce battle against Princes Azuela and her gang. Although now

accepted by his father, Prince Zuko refused to return to their kingdom.

As Aang took a closer look he made out the shape of a short human miserably failing to escape the guards' superior grip. When they were close enough to see, Aang's jaw dropped.

"SPELLERBEE!?!?!" Katara said in shock. Aang was speechless.

"We found him in the basement of the ship where I store my extra tea. Do you know him?"

"I'm a girl," Spellerbee explained to the hundredth person.

At this moment Sokka returned from his long, treacherous, life threatening journey of berry picking. He came charging from the woods exciting to show everyone his basket full, flailing his free arm in the air. He would have called out to the others, but his mouth was so full of the delectable berries he had trouble keeping himself from totally choking. In he haste as didn't notice the up grounded root which was right ahead. His foot snagged and he fell on his face, and in trying to get back on his feet he did not notice the twenty foot drop to his left. With one swift movement he stepped to the side and before he knew it was rolling down a hill full of prickly rose bushes, berries spilling everywhere.

With more important problems Aang and everyone else didn't even notice. Sokka spit out the berries and wiped the dirt off his clothes. No problem, my berries and I will work this out together, he thought. He turned only to find an upturn basket with nothing inside it. "NOOOOOOOOOOO," he wailed. "My berries are toast! Oh how I love berries and toast!" He was lost deep in the woods and pretty sure he wouldn't find food before he became something else's food.

"Spellerbee, what are you doing here?" Aang managed to spit out a few words.

"That day when Jet was brainwashed and died we had nowhere else to go."

"We?"

"Ya, the whole gang is here. We've been drinking that tea and whatever other crap you got down there. But recently we have been getting messages from Jet."

"Messages? But I thought he was died?" Katara's curiosity overruled her sympathy this time.

"Well, so did we, but supposedly the fire nation never fully killed him. He's half alive, living a horrible life. They torture him. Slowly, they are draining his life away leaving only hatred and pure evil. What little life there is left of him is calling our name, calling your name Aang."

Katara could not stand such cruelty even if the victim was a jerk. "How do they have such power?" Aang interrupted her thoughts.

"Jet said something about them controlling the spirit world."

Uncle Iroh was very interested "But only an avatar can journey to the spirit world." Everyone agreed with Iroh's theory and with that got ready to go to bed.

"Hmmm," Katara wondered out loud. "What's taking Sokka so long?"

"Ahhh, he's probably practicing his boomerang skills," Aang said sarcastically.

"What if he's in trouble though?" Aang sighed and agreed to go out with Appa to find him. He stroke the large mammals fur and instantly remembered when he first met him and the time when he lost him. He promised himself he would never loose him again.

"Appa," he cooed trying to wake him up. The bison gave a loud moan and lazily got to his feet. Katara came running out and climbed aboard. "What?" she asked. "I thought a midnight stroll may be fun."